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Ernst: Bring back the plants... or my money

Sarasota County's Andrea Lipstein, Rob Wright and Jane Grogg (left to right) examine a pond at Rivendell's Rainbow Point Park for vestiges of Florida Friendly plants installed several years ago with a county grant.

Published: Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 12:19 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 12:19 p.m.

Sarasota County's Andrea Lipstein, Rob Wright and Jane Grogg (left to right) examine a pond at Rivendell's Rainbow Point Park for vestiges of Florida Friendly plants installed several years ago with a county grant.

Eric Ernst

Actually, it's not only my $10,955. It belongs to anyone who pays taxes in Sarasota County.

When we last saw this money, in early 2008, it was going out in the form of a neighborhood grant to the Woodlands at Rivendell subdivision in Osprey.

In its application to Sarasota County, Rivendell's Michael Bergman said the community intended to remove invasive species and to plant 3,010 flowers, bushes and trees on the banks of six ponds.

All the new plants were to be Florida natives, which, once established, would not require regular applications of fertilizer, insecticides or water.

The community did install the plants.

“We basically turned the edge of the lakes into wildflower gardens instead of turf,” says Russ Hoffman, a Rivendell resident and owner of Beautiful Ponds, which once held the contract for care of the lakes.

But then, two years later, a new homeowners association gained control, fired Hoffman, and slowly eliminated the native plants, deemed by some to be ugly. The HOA instructed Rivendell's landscape maintenance company to mow to the water's edge and to use line trimmers or spray herbicide when that didn't do the trick.

Now, of the 3,010 plants purchased with the public's money, there's barely a mimosa or a soft-stemmed bulrush in sight. Grass has replaced them all.

This represents almost a polar opposite of what Rivendell promised, and it does have consequences beyond the immediate issue of the $10,995.

As Rivendell's application noted, creating a waterside buffer, lessening the amount of fertilizer, and keeping grass clippings and excess nutrients from the water are all best management practices backed by years of research.

Nutrient-loading is really a hyphenated word for pollution. Rivendell drains into South Creek through Oscar Scherer State Park into Sarasota Bay.

The county has to maintain federal clean water standards, and best management practices are a cheap way of doing it. The alternative, a massive cleanup of the bay, would be much more expensive and we would all have to pay for it.

Naturally, not all Rivendell residents support the HOA's about-face.

“Biking throughout Rivendell on nearly a daily basis, I have seen firsthand the damage being done,” Rosanne Beatty wrote to Andrea Lipstein, who enforces county water regulations. “I am writing to plead for your timely assistance in getting the community back on the right track to a watershed friendly community.”

On Feb. 28, Lipstein toured a number of pond areas with Rob Wright, head of the county's Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team, and Jane Grogg, who oversees the grant program.

In 2008, Wright had worked along with other volunteers to install the plants. At site after site, he found little but closely cropped grass.

“Along here we planted aquatics,” he said at Golden Pond. “I have photos of homeowners doing the work. Sunshine mimosa's all that's left. It's a testament to how tough it is.”

Beatty proved her toughness by accompanying the trio of county employees. It was no lark, because the native plantings have been a contentious issue.

“There has been more pushback in Rivendell than any community of the hundreds I've worked with,” Hoffman says.

At Rainbow Point Park, Mary Marryott, an adjoining property owner, confronted the group. “We're trying to keep the property values up in Sarasota County. Why are we not talking about that mess over there, with rats and everything?” she asked, pointing across the pond to a wooded area with wax myrtles and other underbrush approaching the shoreline.

Before long, she and Beatty were calling each other “liars,” and Marryott was proposing that Beatty move if she didn't like the way things were going.

The confrontation reaffirmed a reality. Some people, a lot of people really, just don't like the natural look. Where some of us see a beautiful array of native flowers and bushes, others see a tangle of weeds.

It's not good versus evil, it's just a difference of opinions and tastes, which sometimes come to a head in places like Rivendell.

A second reality: Even native plants have to be maintained to some extent to look their healthiest. They require no fertilizer and less water and fewer chemicals, but in an urban landscape, they still need some care. Rivendell, for whatever reason, was not supplying that minimum level of care.

A third reality: There's no law that requires Rivendell or any other neighborhood to adopt the best management practices advocated by the University of Florida, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Best practices are voluntary, dependent on education, of which the grant program is a part. And, are subject to the whims of homeowner associations.

Education can be a slow process, as exemplified by an email Beatty received in October from a neighbor. “Your rantings about the dangers of run-off from the lawns is really totally unfounded,” it said. “Ninety percent of my property drains to the street and is carried into the storm sewer system ...” Apparently, like magic, it's gone.

Rivendell still owes us some money. The contract states, “GRANTEE shall maintain the project as designed and constructed (or installed) subject to normal wear and tear.” It also warns that the county may require reimbursement if a neighborhood fails to fulfill its obligations.

Wright says he's still in the fact-gathering stage to determine what happened to the plants and why.

The county attorney's office is reviewing the contract language, not only for reimbursement possibilities but to suggest changes so this type of thing doesn't happen again.

The neighborhood grant budget varies. This year, the county has set aside $99,000 for the program. It's enough of an expense to warrant followup inspections to ensure we're getting what we pay for.